


Boom, clap (The sound of my heart)

by larrycaring



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Actor Harry, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Radio, BBC Radio 1, Famous Harry, Louis and Nick are good pals, M/M, Normal Louis, Radio, Singer Harry, Tomlinshaw rises, also Gryles, because Harry is famous and Louis isn't, non famous louis, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 05:13:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11548200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/larrycaring/pseuds/larrycaring
Summary: Harry Styles is invited to his friend Nick Grimshaw’s radio show for the promo of his first upcoming movie. When Nick announces Harry is gonna be rigged to a heart monitor while he’s asked questions, Harry knows the game is going to be something.He hadn’t expected his heart to betray him when Louis Tomlinson enters the room.Translations:-italian-spanish-chinese





	Boom, clap (The sound of my heart)

**Author's Note:**

> The fic is based on the prompt:
> 
> And um… For some reasons when I wrote this fic, I totally forgot that Louis was supposed to be a radio host and instead I changed that a little…
> 
> Also, yes the fic is rather short. I apologize in advance, haha. It's just. I've been struggling to write lately. It's awful. But when I saw this prompt, I still wanted to try something. So yeah... I hope people will enjoy this nonetheless.
> 
> Many thanks to my friend Liz (twitter: [@Dont_Stop_Larry](https://twitter.com/Dont_Stop_Larry) // AO3: [Dont_Stop_Larry](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Dont_Stop_Larry)) for being my beta. Please, check out her fics! :)

Harry settles back in his chair, placing the radio headset on his head once again. He tries not to fidget on his chair, but it’s hard when Nick is smirking at him from across the desks. The radio host looks the perfect picture of a tease, a simple white shirt accented by a stethoscope, as though he is an actual doctor.

He informed Harry that they’re going to do a little game where Harry’s heartbeat is gonna be monitored while Nick asks him questions. And it’s not that Harry doesn’t trust Nick, but… He highly dreads the questions he’s going to get.

Still, he plasters a grin on his face just as the song playing on the radio comes to an end. 

“Grimmy here, with Harry Styles,” Nick greets, not for the first time today. “How are you doing, H?”

“Good, good.” His eyes flicker warily towards the door as someone steps in. It’s Jim, the assistant, who’s currently bringing the material for the game. “I'm good,” he repeats as his eyes scan the heart monitor to his left.

Nick catches his eyes and chuckles at Harry’s concern, apparently evident on his face. “Oh gosh, if you guys could see his face,” he says quickly to the public, clapping his hands quietly on the table in front of him. “Right, so today we’re gonna get Harry Styles rigged up to a heart monitor,” he informs cheerfully, as if totally enjoying what is going to follow. He probably is. “You know, to see what images give the most emotional response!”

“Oh God,” Harry can’t help but whisper, covering up his apprehension with a nervous chuckle and letting the assistant getting him ready. In no time, Harry is hooked to the heart monitor by three wires attached to his chest and lower abdomen by sticky sponges. He immediately feels itchy, and resists the urge to take them off. 

Nick laughs wholeheartedly at Harry’s obvious nervousness. Harry hates him. “Alright,” Nick says. “So Jim is popping them on right now.” When he notices it seems to be done, he asks, “Is he alive, Doctor Oscar?” 

Jim snorts at the nickname as Harry fiddles with the wires a moment before glancing at the heart monitor. It’s blank. Or rather, the screen is black. He looks back at Nick with a smile. Maybe there’s a dysfunction and they won’t be able to play.

“Wait, wait, hang on,” Jim says, pushing some some buttons to get the bloody thing to work. Harry really hopes it won’t. 

“There’s nothing,” Harry states, looking back at the machine.

“There’s nothing?” Nick repeats, glancing between the heart monitor and Harry. He widens his eyes in a mock-gasp. “He’s a robot Simon Cowell created.”

Harry only briefly registers the screen coming to life because his head snaps towards Nick with an incredulous smile. “Hey,” he says, dragging out the word in both disbelief and amusement. He turns on his chair to get a look at his manager, who’s shaking his head and hiding his smile. 

Harry thinks his fans are going to enjoy the little sneaky shade. He can’t much dwell on it, though, because then Jim straightens and it seems like the monitor is finally working. Dang it. 

“Okay, is that good?” Grimmy asks. 

Jim nods, reading the screen where a green number can be read. “Heart rate sixty eight beat per minute.”

Nick grins, pleased. “Okay, let’s go.” Then he smiles drops and his eyes dart everywhere on his desk. He looks up at his team on the side. “Where’re the pictures?”

Harry watches as some of Nick’s teammates shrug and someone exits the room in a hurry. Thank God the radio show is being pre-recorded, because it seems like they’re missing a part of the game. 

Nick falls against his backseat and throws a blasé expression at Harry. “I’m surrounded by a bunch of dum-dums.”

Harry starts laughing as Nick pretends to start whining more at his teammates, more to entertain Harry than throwing actual reprimands. Harry sees out of the corner of his eyes that someone has reentered the room. “I got them,” a fruity voice says, and Harry’s chuckles die right in his throat.

Because the boy who just entered (Harry doesn’t know if he was there before, but surely Harry would have noticed him if he was) is… breathtaking. He looks very handsome, even in his casual clothes. He’s wearing a jean and a cerulean t-shirt. It’s a colourful choice, and when Harry briefly meets the boy’s eyes when he walks towards Nick, it’s like every shade of colours besides blue no longer exist.

Because the boy’s eyes are the same shade as his t-shirt. And the sparking eyes are brought out by the tanned skin, and honesty, Harry doesn’t even know what to say or think, his ass rooted to the chair. He really hopes his mouth isn’t agape, expressing how starstruck he is by the young man in front of him. He isn’t aware of the sudden _beep_ filling up the room until Nick speaks up. 

“Well, that’s interesting.”

It takes Harry a moment to detach his eyes from the beautiful man, drifting to Nick quickly. The latter has a huge smile on his face, so huge that Harry reckons Nick’s cheeks might split. Nick looks between the young man beside him and Harry, and then looks at the monitor that Harry completely forgot he was attached to. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s reached 96,” Nick exclaims with a laugh. 

What?

Harry’s eyes widen, and his head snaps towards the machine besides him. Sure enough, the green number reads 96, and it even changes to 98 a second later. Harry’s face starts burning up as he recalls that his initial heart rate was 62. Oh Gosh, this is embarrassing. Harry really hates Nick. 

He doesn’t even want to look back at the radio host and the man. He keeps his gaze down and tries to play it cool. “It’s going crazy because he scared me.”

Nick’s laughter fills the room, and Harry notes with embarrassment that everyone else is also laughing. “That is the shittiest excuse I’ve ever heard, and coming from you, that says something, Harold.”

Harry’s face burns and his freaking stupid eyes betray him, darting to the man who’s looking everywhere else but at him. He’s smiling though, and Harry reckons his cheeks are tinted with pink. He shoves a pile of papers into Nick’s hands and mumbles something under his breath before heading out of the room. Harry’s heartbeat only slows down a little.

“Riiiiight,” Nick says, his tone full of amusement. His smile is smug when Harry only glares at him, but he can’t do much more. There are cameras recording, and Harry has made a fool of himself enough today. He knew this heart monitoring game was going to be a bad idea.

“This game is the best idea we’ve ever had,” Nick declares delightfully at the rest of the room, whose faces are probably going to make Harry blush even more. He avoids everyone’s gaze.

He hates Nick. 

**

All things considered, the game doesn’t go as badly as Harry thought it would go. His heart rate decided to go high for shirtless Ryan Gosling (honestly, who wouldn’t lose his chill) and then even higher for a pair of boots. Harry hates his team and Nick. But overall, it was great. He almost forgot the incident that happened earlier. 

That is, until Nick doesn’t let go of him after the radio show and drags him to the BBC cafeteria. 

“Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?” Nick says with a grin, his eyes observing Harry’s face as they take a seat at a table, sitting face to face. 

Harry pretends to take a sip from his tea so that he doesn’t have to answer him. His eyes wander around the cafeteria, which is almost empty right now. He really hopes the beautiful stranger from earlier won’t show up. But Harry has never been a lucky person. 

His hands tighten around his cup when Nick doesn’t stop smirking at him. Harry wants to throw his tea in his face.

“Yeah, real fun,” Harry answers in faux cheerfulness. He knows he needs to play along. And he knows Nick isn’t going to let it go. 

Nick rubs a finger along the rim of his cup, looking all smug. Harry can see his eyes sparkling with whatever Nick has in mind. “His name is Louis Tomlinson, if you're wondering.”

“I wasn’t,” he replies quickly. Too quickly. 

Nick’s smug face is really starting to get unnerving. “He’s a really good friend of mine. He likes to come by and attend radio shows sometimes. And did he insist on coming today,” he says with a pleased tone. 

That catches Harry’s attention, but not for the reason Nick thinks (his smirk is so annoying).

“Wait, I know almost all your friends,” Harry says with a frown. “How come I don’t know this one?” He puts his bottom lip out, pretending to pout. It’s true though. Nick has been a very good friend, the most genuine one Harry has found within the music industry. Through Nick, Harry knew everyone from the radio world. So yeah, it was weird he never heard of Louis Tomlinson. Stunning Louis Tomlinson. 

Nick gives him an unimpressed look. “I know you think I love you so much, but I have my own friends, Harold. But hey, since I actually do love you, I guess I could always set you two up. He’s single. You’re single. It’s perfect.”

Harry returns the look. “No, thank you. I don’t need you to do anything. Please, don’t do anything.” The last time Nick had tried to set Harry up, it was a total disaster. 

Speaking of disaster, Harry’s heart jumps in his chest when he spots Louis Tomlinson entering the cafeteria, stopping at a table to chat with some people. Harry quickly looks down at his teacup, hoping Nick didn’t catch him.

But when Harry dares to look up at his friend, Nick’s face is lit up with a giant shit grin on his face. “Beep, beep, beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep,” he says with wide eyes. 

Harry narrows his eyes. “What are you doing?”

Nick shrugs innocently. “If you were attached to a heart monitor right now, it would go wild.”

Harry huffs out a laugh, shaking his head as he slumps against the back of the chair. “I hate you.”

“Nah you don’t,” Nick says, before exaggeratedly waving an arm in the air. “Hey, Lou!”

Oh no. No, no no. Here we go. 

Harry wishes he could melt into the chair and disappear from the human’s eyes, but he also is Harry Styles and his mother taught him good manners. So when Louis arrives at their table with the most charming smile ever, Harry straightens in his chair and plasters a polite smile on his face. 

“Louis Tomlinson, this is Harry Styles,” Nick introduces with the same constant joyous smile. Harry doesn’t think he’s ever seen Grimmy this happy in his life. “Harry, this is Louis Tomlinson, my good ol’ pal.”

Harry almost loses himself in the sea of Louis’ eyes — they really are something else —  but he is brought back to Earth by the hand Louis is holding out. “Hi, nice to meet you,” Louis says with the same pleasant voice Harry heard earlier.

Harry beams, taking his hand. He swears he is not making it up: when their skin touches, sparks fly everywhere. Okay, maybe he is, but it felt like there were sparks. 

“Nice to meet you, too,” Harry replies, proud that his voice doesn’t waver or anything. He can totally be in control, heart rate betraying him or not. 

“Did you enjoy today’s show, Louis?” Nick asks with an elated tone, because _of course_ he has to ask. 

Louis and Harry drop their hands, and Harry swears Louis’ enthralling eyes linger on Harry for a millisecond before he blinks at Nick. 

“Yes, of course,” Louis answers with a smile. He looks back at Harry, and Harry honestly almost falls off his chair, because he hadn’t expected to have Louis’ attention on him again so quickly. “Congrats on the movie.”

Harry’s smile widens. “Thank you! Have you watched it?”

“I’m afraid I haven’t yet, but Nick did and he only had good things to say,” Louis says, patting Nick’s shoulder. 

“I’m sure,” Harry says, his smile now so wide, it’s embarrassing, but he can’t seem to control it. Louis just makes him feel giddy.

“Of course I had good things to say,” Nick says. He huffs a laugh. “You were wet for most part of the movie.”

Harry widens his eyes comically and laughs. He’s too used to these kinds of remarks coming from Nick. However, he isn’t used to Louis’ laughter, and, well, his laughter is gentle, sweet and very pleasant to the ears. Harry thinks he’s totally charmed. 

“You’re gonna enjoy this, Louis,” Nick continues, sounding smug as he throws a meaningful look at Louis. “You’re such a big fan of Harry Styles, after all.”

And if Nick’s idea of setting two people up is to embarrass them, then it seems like it isn’t completely working with Louis. Because the man arches an eyebrow and puts a hand on his hip, making eye contact with Harry. “Of course I’m a fan of Harry Styles. Who wouldn’t love him?” His tone is joking, but not in a bad away. It’s more like, ‘Yeah okay the cat is out of the bag, but I can’t even bothered to be embarrassed by this.’ 

Harry flashes a sweet smile at Nick. “I like him better than you already.”

Nick rolls his eyes. “Fine then, I’ll leave you two alone.”

And in a flash, he gets up from the table, walking away. 

 _The little shit_. 

Louis chuckles and doesn’t waste any time sitting in Nick’s seat. Harry is so glad he has the rest of the day off. Because if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be sitting right here, right now, in front of Louis Tomlinson. He would have gotten into his taxi and been taken away to some more interviews for the upcoming film. 

And don’t get him wrong, Harry loves doing interviews and promo, but right now, he’s so grateful he can just sit and talk to Louis.

“So, you know Grimmy then?” Harry asks, and internally winces. He really didn’t know how to start this conversation, but eh.

Louis pretends to pull a face, pretending to be annoyed by that fact. “Yes, I’ve known him for seven years now. He’s an alright bloke.”

Harry chuckles, but he recognises the fondness in Louis’ voice. It’s clear Louis and Nick are close, and Harry can’t believe Nick never talked about him. He’ll have to confront Nick a bit more later.

“And you?” Louis asks, tilting his head. “I mean, I know you two are friends, Nick mentions you from time to time.”

Harry arches an eyebrow. “Really? I hope he doesn’t spread too many lies.”

Louis laughs. “Nah, don’t worry. Well, he did tell me a story of ‘Drunk Harry Styles’ one day.”

Harry is going to kill Nick Grimshaw. 

“Which one?” Harry asks in worry, his mind quickly remembering all the embarrassing nights he and Nick ever had. Nick probably has a lot to choose from. 

Louis laughs once more. “Don’t worry,” he says when he hears the alarm in Harry’s voice. “He said it was during one of your birthday parties. Your 21st one?”

“Oh God,” Harry sighs, hiding his face in his hands to mask his embarrassment. Harry remembers that night. “The Night That Should Never Be Mentioned Ever Again,” he groans. Louis’ hearty laugh breaks through the barrier, and Harry drops his hands to shake his head. “I have many interesting stories about Grimmy, too.”

Louis’ eyes twinkle with interest. “Ah, I’d like to hear them all one day.”

And yeah, Harry would totally like that, too.

“I could always tell you,” Harry starts, “over a drink sometime?” He can’t believe he’s being that bold, but Louis’ whole vibrant person is giving him bravery, apparently. 

He watches anxiously as Louis bites his bottom lip and doesn’t break his stare with Harry. He’s trying to suppress a smile, so Harry takes that as a good sign. His cheeks are slightly pink, and Harry has to admit, it looks good on him. He looks young and beautiful, all clean-shaven. He flips his fringe in a robotic manner, and though it’s not the first time Harry’s seen him do that (he had done it when he was in the booth that morning) Harry resists the urge to run his hands through Louis’ hair.

“Are you asking me out then?” Louis says, his eyes crinkling in a smile.

Harry answers quickly before he chickens out. “Yes.” Then, he adds more bashfully, “Well, only if you’d like to, of course.”

Louis’ smile turns soft, and Harry’s heart is melting. “Yeah, I’d love to.”

“Beep, beep, beep.”

Louis and Harry turn their head in unison as Nick walks by their table. He throws them a wink over his shoulder and keeps walking away. 

Oh my God, Harry is going to kill Nick. 

When he finds the courage to look at Louis, the man is biting down on his lip to suppress another smile. He blinks and looks at Harry from under his eyelashes. “If it makes you feel better, my heart rate would have probably gone high if you had walked into the room, too.”

Harry definitely feels better. He giggles, he can’t help it, and looks away in bashfulness. Who is this guy and why has Nick never introduced them before?

“You flatter me,” Harry says shyly, waving a hand.

Louis giggles in turn, and Harry decides this is the best sound he’s ever heard in his whole life. 

Louis Tomlinson is the highlight of Harry’s day, and he hopes it won’t be the only day from now on. 

**

Later, as Harry comes home with Louis’ number saved in his phone, he gets a message. It’s not from Louis, but from Nick. 

**I told you this heart monitor thing was going to be great! Thank me in three years when you two get married.**

Harry shakes his head but grins to himself. 

Harry doesn’t always love Nick, but today he owes him one. And Harry has never been more grateful for his heart rate to betray him. 

_Boom! Clap!_

_The sound of my heart_

_The beat goes on and on and on and on and_

_Boom! Clap!_

_You make me feel good_

_Come on to me, come on to me now_

**Author's Note:**

> **It was a quick and short fic because I haven’t been able to post in a while! And I guess I could have written more, with the story taking place on more than one day and all, but I wanted this to be short and efficient, and let everyone else imagines the rest of the story?**
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> **Thoughts? Hope you guys still enjoyed this.**
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> **Thank you for reading.**
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> **Hope you liked it. Go read my other fics. Of course, it's not an order. Just an advice. Please. Pretty please? :D**
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> **Kudos and comments would be much appreciated!**
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> **[Click[here](http://archiveofourown.org/users/larrycaring/pseuds/larrycaring/works) to see and read all my other works!]**
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> **Twitter:**  
> [@larrycaring](https://twitter.com/larrycaring)  
>  **Tumblr:[mystupidamours](http://mystupidamours.tumblr.com/)**


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